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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Holiday Tips and Menu Ideas

Good
Morning y'all!! Today's post is not exactly a recipe, but every year I
like to re post my Holiday Cooking tips and Menu Ideas for y'all. I know
Halloween is just the start of the Holiday rush for most, and with
Thanksgiving just a few short weeks away I know we're all starting to
prepare. So here are a few helpful hints to make your holidays a little
less stressful and some menu ideas!

Holiday Tips!

1.
Get as much baking done as you can in the days before Thanksgiving and
Christmas. Baking takes so much more work and time than cooking, it's
good to have it out of the way.

2. When making Mashed Potatoes,
if you are serving a large crowd and want them to stay warm once
they're mashed put them in a crock pot on a warm setting with a small
amount of butter on top to keep them warm and moist. (This is also
great for keeping stuffing, sliced turkey, sweet potatoes, gravy all those things warm too.)

3. When using your crock pot for anything such as breakfast, potatoes, soups, make sure you spray it with non-stick cooking spray first. It will make your clean up that much easier

4. If it's cold outside and you want to keep your guests nice and warm, keep things like coffee, tea, hot chocolate
or cider on hand. For things like Hot Chocolate and Cider you can also
keep those warm in a crock-pot. In fact most things like that you can
make in the crock-pot as well. Either with your own blend of Hot
chocolate or with packets, just add the right amount of water, heat it
up in the crock-pot and keep on warm.

5. When making a Turkey, be sure and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes before slicing to keep the juices in the Turkey.

6. Keep the leftovers and reuse. Things like Turkey Tetrizinni,
soups, potato pancakes, etc. are all wonderful things on a cold
winters day. And can be frozen and pulled out at a later time.

7.
Take leftover place cards, or just some card stock and make labels of
what different items are, or the ingredients in them so that if things
look similar you know what you're having, or if your family has some
allergies or diabetics they know what is safe to eat.

8.
Wear an apron all day long! This one I can't stress enough, especially
if you tend to be a bit of a klutz. I am constantly spilling on myself
while cooking, and eating and if you're like me you wear something
nice for the holidays you want to keep it clean. So wear an apron and
once clean up is done take it off and show off your still fabulous
outfit!

9. Be patient and try not to worry. Food reacts
to our emotions, as weird as it sounds. If you are stressed and doing
too many things at once, things will get burnt or just spoiled, which
will only stress you out more. And plan your cooking schedule. If
things cook at the same temperature take advantage of that and cook
multiple things at once. And don't be afraid to cook things a day or so in advance, you can bake your Turkey and then while it is resting *very important to let your Turkey rest before carving! See tip #5* you can re-heat your sides. And crock pots are great for this too!

10. Clean while you cook! You will be surprised how easy this is and how much stress if will relieve at the end of your dinner! While things are cooking and before
starting the next round, wash whatever you can then or get someone else
to do that for you, so that once the food is served and you are done
eating you can relax and only have the dinner dishes left to clean up.